You love the color green, making it an obvious choice for your engagement ring. Naturally you have a few questions about which gemstone you should choose, a Emerald or a Teal Green Sapphire. Keep reading to learn more about color, durability, and price to see which is right for you.
What is an Emerald?
Emeralds are part of the mineral family, Beryl, and are well known for their intense, vivid green coloring. While Columbia is regarded are the primary source of top quality emeralds, they have a variety of origins, such a Brazil, Zambia and Ethiopia. A good quality emerald will have a vivid green shade with excellent transparency and minimal inclusions, while a lesser quality emerald may look more opaque with various undertones and inclusions present.
What is a Sapphire?
Sapphires belong to the corundum mineral family, and are best known for their durability and stunning blue hues, although they do come in a wide array of colours. Known as the sapphire capital of the world, Sri Lanka is the most famous sapphire source, with many other gems coming from regions in Australia and the United States. A good quality sapphire is characterized by its intense color, eye-clean clarity and brilliance.
Color:
Emeralds are known for their bright green colors. The intensity of their green color can vary from light and translucent to vivid dark hues, and even blue toned hues, depending on the quality of the gem.
Sapphires are renowned for their brilliant blue hues, as well as a spectrum of other colors, including teal, peach, yellow, purple, and even colorless (known as white sapphires). More recently, sapphires have gained popularity for their unique teal and green hues, with bi-coloured Parti Teal sapphires being the most sought after.
Durability and Hardness:
It is a very important factor to consider when choosing a gemstone, since engagement rings are intended to be worn daily. Sapphires are incredibly durable, being the second hardest natural mineral, with a 9 on the MoHs scale of hardness. Emeralds are a relatively softer gem, a 7.5, making them more prone to scratches and chipping. They are a lot more delicate and hence a lot of people prefer sapphires over emeralds for daily wear engagement rings. If you are after the green color gemstone, you can always go for teal or green sapphire. They make an excellent choice for those who want durability with the color they prefer.
Clarity and Inclusions:
Emerald being from the Beryl Family, they are heavily included by nature. These inclusions can affect the overall beauty of the gemstone. Not only are good clarity emeralds extremely rare, they can cost upwards of $20,000. Sapphires by nature have fewer inclusions by nature, and hence they make a really great choice for engagement rings, as you will be able to achieve your desired colour, clarity and size for a more affordable budget of $4,000 - $10,000.
Rarity and Price:
Emeralds and sapphires are both precious gemstones and are both equally rare. If you are looking for eye-clean clarity emeralds, as these are extremely rare, they can cost upwards of $20,000 or more. Sapphires on the other hand, while rare in their diverse spectrum of color, are a lot more of an affordable gemstone. Due to the nature of the gem itself, a sapphire with no visible inclusions to the naked eye, and intense vivid color, will cost less when compared with the same quality emerald, making it a fantastic choice if you do not wish to compromise on clarity or color.
Which one is right for me?
From our past experience, if you’re looking for an anniversary gift, something you may wear on occasion, emeralds are a very popular choice. However if you are looking for an engagement ring, with more durability, fewer inclusions, high color saturation, and at a more affordable price, we see a lot of people consider teal sapphires over emeralds.